I know there’s plenty of disagreement out there over the commercialism of the holiday — whether stores should be open early, whether the meaning of the season is lost in doorbuster discounts and packed parking lots.

But if you consider that there might be room for both — holiday cheer and some great shopping deals — you can appreciate the massive effort that goes into putting out a newspaper that holds the key to all these bargains our stores have lined up.

A few facts about this year’s operation:

• The Press-Gazette’s Circulation Department will distribute over 5 million advertising inserts this week.

• The Thanksgiving Day paper is the biggest-selling edition of the year with over 23,000 copies sold that day at retail outlets.

• Circulation staff is working around the clock from Monday evening through this weekend to handle distribution of these newspapers. That means inserting — by hand — these weighty ad stacks into each printed newspaper. It means unloading these behemoths from the printing facility trucks and transferring them to your carriers’ packed-to-the-hilt vehicles to lug through city streets to your doorstep. It means showing up at the Festival Foods Turkey Trot bright and early this morning and taking stacks to the Green Bay Gamblers game Wednesday night just to get them into everyone’s hands.

My family has often spent Thanksgiving with the newspaper spread all over the floor, passing around the flyers and pointing out deals. My brother has been the only one crazy enough to venture out, and that was a rare weakness for a Stein Gardens & Gifts yard decoration. But the post-Thanksgiving-feast research is fun just the same, and it always led to gift ideas. When my mom notices a picture frame she’d love or my niece mentions the cute scarf at a local store, I mentally file it away. And there’s always hoping my gushing about the latest home stereo speakers doesn’t go unnoticed.

So while I’m thankful for several things this holiday season, I include in my gratitude the backbreaking, potentially paper-cutting, overall exhausting labor that goes into getting these on the doorsteps and in the racks. Use them to plan your store strategy or just get ideas.